Ivo Oliveira gets revenge for brother Rui with final stage win, overall victory for Johannessen

After Saturday's queen stage, which the surprising Kyrylo Tsarenko won, anything could still happen in the final stage of the Tour of Slovenia. Anders Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) had taken the leader's jersey from Jan Christen (Q36.5). However, Felix Grossschartner (UAE Team Emirates) and Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek) were still very close behind. It was time for battle in the hills to Novo Mesto (not to be confused with Nove Mesto in the Czech Republic).

During the first kilometers, there was no room for an early breakaway, and only after about 40 kilometers did some riders break away. These were not just any names: Sam Oomen was there, along with teammate Juan Pedro López, who was 1.40 minutes behind in the GC. José Félix Parra (Equipo Kern Pharma) was even 10 seconds closer. With his teammate Diego Uriarte and Márton Dina (Euskaltel-Euskadi), a dangerously fast quintet tried to disrupt the race.

Of course, the breakaway riders never really got much space. Parra briefly virtually took the leader's jersey, but Uno-X saw the danger posed by the two strong climbers at the front and slowly closed the gap. On the Trebelno climb, the penultimate climb of the day, it was less than a minute. Andrea Piras (Solution Tech - Vini Fantini) broke away from the pack, leaving us with six riders at the front. But the lead got smaller and smaller. Moreover, the climb to Trska Gora was less than 10 kilometers from the finish.

That climb was short but steep. Parra and López fought hard, but it quickly became clear that the peloton was closing in fast. The Spaniard from Lidl-Trek was the strongest of the breakaway riders: he quickly opted for a breakaway, but there was also war in the peloton. So it was soon up to leader Johannessen himself to set the pace on the steep slopes of the climb.

But Johannessen felt strong enough to go after the leaders himself. The threat was too big, so he got rid of his rivals. Later, Hart, Grosschartner, Fernando Barceló (Caja Rural - Seguros RGA), and the 19-year-old Slovenian Jakob Omrzel (Bahrain Victorious) closed the gap. That group joined Parra, and they closed in on the solo leader. However, the pace slowed, and López regained more than 30 seconds: the other favorites caught up with the leader's group.

Uno-X still had one man to support their lead rider, who took the lead. This prevented López from gaining enough time to take the leader's jersey, and the stage victory also turned out to be difficult. In the final kilometers, he was caught by the group of favorites, where the sprint began. Ivo Oliveira was the first to attack in the sprint and held off Andrea Bagioli (Lidl-Trek) and Barceló. He thus took revenge for the victory snatched from his brother in stage two.